Face to Face
by BFCAS
Summary: 3500 miles and five hours difference apart from her best friend and Beca is wide awake. Chloe has a very similar dilemma.


Hey crew. So this is just a short little thing I wrote as I try and get back into the swing of writing again. I'm working on new stuff all the time though and yes, that means chapters of old fics too, do not fret!

I'm writing a fair few little things on my tumblr too, so definitely check it out at .com -if you want that is! I'll post them all to here too eventually but that's where I spend most of my time.

Anyway, enjoy this short little bout of saccharine sweet nonsense and as always let me know what you think!

(EDIT: This is the umpteenth attempt to upload this because I'm an idiot who keeps posting it in html… Sorry! Let's hope this works, eh?)

...

For the thousandth time in an hour, Beca rolled onto her other side in bed with a long sigh. Nothing changed. The duvet was still scratchy and the noise from the city outside still trickled in through the window that wasn't allowed to be opened more than a crack, meaning the room remained at a humid and uncomfortable temperature.

Beca's brain screamed at her to sleep as she stared up at the ceiling with the mysterious stain on it. But her body fought back, her muscles and nerves still kicking around on New York time. This trip to London had seemed like an exciting opportunity when her boss had proposed it a month or so back. See some upcoming artists, experience London culture and ride in a famous black cab- Beca couldn't lie and say she wasn't excited when she was chosen to go. She finally felt that after a year at BFD, she was moving up the ladder.

But since arriving in the capital fifteen hours ago, she had seen a truly terrible gig, paid an extortionate amount of money for a black cab that smelt a little like onion and tried a British cup of tea to just spit it out again. Why would anyone choose tea over coffee, she had wondered as she ate a mysteriously named 'Digestive' biscuit that she severely hoped wouldn't give her stomach problems as the name would suggest.

It was safe to say, it wasn't the best of business trips.

And now she was tossing and turning in bed, catching a glimpse of the brightly glowing clock on the bedside table and heaving a sigh as she saw the numbers change from 03:03 to 03:04. This was the longest night she had ever had, for sure.

It wasn't the jet lag that was even bothering Beca. It sucked, sure, her body and brain operating on different plains, but it wasn't the buzzing in her head or the noise of the city keeping her awake. It was the silence in the room. It was the uneasy feeling of the large double being vacant save Beca's small form. It was the distinct lack of an arm slung over her waist and the feel of soft breathing in her ear.

Beca sighed again. She was never getting to sleep.

—

Three and a half thousand miles away, Chloe Beale refreshed her Instagram for the third time in a minute, hoping for anything new. When nothing came up, she sighed and threw her phone to the side of her, it bouncing on the bed she was sat on the left side of.

Safe to say, she was bored out of her mind. She'd even cleaned the whole apartment and done all the laundry, which she would never do unless she was as damn bored as right now.

With both her roommates gone for the week, Chloe had found herself scrabbling for ways to keep herself entertained. She'd already watched an entire season of Breaking Bad and made a cake. She thought halfway through that she'd gone insane but then realised she literally was just bored out of her mind after eight years of always having roommates around to fuel her need for socialisation.

It had only been two days since Amy had gone to her sisters and Beca to London but Chloe felt those days drag on, even when she was at work keeping busy. And as she sat in the empty studio apartment with only the sound of one of Beca's mixes playing from the small speakers in the corner, Chloe felt every second trickle past like treacle. She thought briefly about messaging someone, but it was nearly half ten and pretty late for most people she knew.

Just as she was thinking about starting the next series of Breaking Bad, Chloe heard her phone ring from next to her. She picked it up so quickly, she nearly threw it over her head with enthusiasm. She didn't even know who was calling, it could be her gynaecologist for all she cared as long as he would converse with her and relieve even an iota of boredom.

But then she read the screen and she felt her heart skip a little.

 _Beca M would like to FaceTime_

It was like someone had answered her prayers; her best friend and person she missed most was on the other end of a video chat right now.

After a quick readjustment of her hair and sitting position (because so what if she wanted to look as good as possible for Beca? That much was nothing new.) Chloe pressed the green accept button and waited with baited breath as the small connecting symbol span round in the centre of the screen.

Then in it's place was the pixellated image of Beca Mitchell and Chloe couldn't help the wide smile that split across her face.

"Hey you!" Chloe grinned, waving her free hand up at the camera. Beca mirrored her action, the picture jolting every now and then with the bad connection until finally the internet decided to work and the picture of Beca became clear and smooth once more.

"How's London?" Chloe asked, dropping her hand. "'Ave you had a spot o' tea guvnor?" She continued in the best English accent that she could manage. Beca obviously didn't think it was that great, as she grimaced before a laugh came out, the sound coming through on Chloe's phone speakers and making her laugh right back.

"That was so bad. Like that was awful." Beca laughed before her face dropped into a more gentle smile. "I miss your dumbass."

To anyone else that wouldn't have seemed like much of a compliment, but coming from Beca, Chloe knew that that was completely heartfelt. And it made Chloe giggle as she lay back on the bed that the girl on the other end of the video chat should be lying in too.

—

An hour passed and the two girls were still chatting away to each other. Chloe had gotten into bed and propped her phone up on the bedside table, all whilst Beca regaled her with tales about what she had been up to since touching down at Stanstead airport.

As Chloe was describing a particularly colourful character at the vet surgery, she watched Beca yawn and she suddenly remembered that time zones were a thing. She was so busy talking and laughing to even think that it was nearing 5am for Beca in England and so she stopped her story mid word.

"I'm sorry Becs, I totally forgot you were probably trying to sleep!" Chloe apologised, tucking herself further into the duvet as she watched Beca do the same, the girl having copied her set up of the phone propped up on the chest of drawers next to her bed. Beca shook her head.

"It's fine. I couldn't sleep because of this shitty jet lag." Beca said, but Chloe could tell from the way her voice had dropped in pitch a little and the almost unnoticeable slur to her words that Beca was nearing the point of exhaustion and passing out. But before she could suggest hanging up the phone, Beca interrupted her. "What are you up to tomorrow?"

And just like that, Chloe decided that if she couldn't lie in bed next to Beca as she fell asleep like usual then this would be a happy temporary substitute. She could always hang up the phone when Beca finally dropped off and it seemed that chatting like this had helped Beca to get to that point in the first place.

And so, with a smile and a long look at the sleepy face of the girl she loved from 3500 miles away, Chloe continued.

—

It was the loud and brief scream of an ambulance siren that woke Beca up with a jolt. Almost instantly she closed her eyes again though, as the bright light coming from the bedside table lamp that she had obviously left on came as a shock to her freshly opened eyes.

She sighed heavily into the pillow before she decided to chance looking up again. Through squinted eyelids she looked to the bedside table to check the time but never got that far.

Instead her eyes fell onto her phone that was still propped up against her glass of water, the charging wire trailing from the phone to the floor. And on the screen was a sight she had seen a hundred times before but still one she would never be able to look at without the same fond smile of adoration ghosting her features. That sight was Chloe Beale dead asleep, face half hidden on the pillow and her fingers twisted in the same strand of red hair they were every other night.

Beca just watched her for a long moment, the dumb smile on her face not dropping. Chloe was one of those few individuals who even looked beautiful when they were sleeping- even when she was dribbling from the corner of her mouth a little and twitching her eyebrows like she did. They were just little parts of Chloe that Beca had learnt not just to deal with, but had learnt to love.

In fact, as Beca watched the older girl sleeping in New York, it became clear why she couldn't sleep earlier. Partly because of the jet lag, yes, but mostly because her body had become so accustomed, so dependent, on Chloe being by her side that it had been clueless on how to operate without her there.

Beca knew she should hang up the phone. Chloe obviously hadn't meant to have fallen asleep, just as Beca hadn't, and it would save the pair of them a great deal of embarrassment come the morning- not to mention reduce Beca's Wi-Fi bill from the hotel in half. Her brain still didn't seem to be communicating with her body though, and ignoring every message from her head to reach over and press the end call button Beca succumbed to the wave of tiredness that flooded her and closed her eyes again.

If Chloe couldn't be there with her in person like she so desperately wanted, then Beca would settle for listening to her best friend's sleep mumbling and uneven breathing through her tinny phone speakers. Beca couldn't sleep without the noise, she found after nearly a year of sharing a bed with the girl, and she wasn't about to start now.


End file.
